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In October 2025, Gene Kilroy, Muhammad Ali’s former business manager, sat down with Sports Bytes Philippines to recount the Thrilla in Manila 1975.

He shared how a Filipino boy’s bucket of ice helped Ali triumph over Joe Frazier — and how Ali and Frazier later made peace.
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Transcript
00:00The clock is ticking, hearts ignite.
00:05Sports Bites, Philippines, we rise.
00:08Through the coast of fields, the skies.
00:11Loud and proud, we chase the prize.
00:16Angelo said he won't be back. I said he'll be back.
00:19And here he comes showing up with the two buckets of ice.
00:23I say, thank God, we just got the edge on the fight.
00:27So we put so much ice on Oli between the rounds, he almost froze to death.
00:33Joe Frazier didn't have any ice, all that heat on him.
00:36And in the end, he was, you know, the last round, Eddie Fudd said to him,
00:41how many fingers are up?
00:43He said, you're not holding any up. Eddie stopped the fight.
00:46Now, I told Oli one thing, when you fight Joe Frazier,
00:52you know where he's going to be on the end of your gloves.
00:56George Foreman, you got to look for him.
00:59Kenny Norton's shy, uppercuts, you know, different fighters, different styles.
01:04But Frazier, he is on the end of your gloves.
01:07You just look out and there he is.
01:11Joe Frazier and I were good friends some years back.
01:15And Joe would tell me, I said, he doesn't mean that what he said.
01:21And Joe said, how would you like your kids going to school?
01:25And they're calling your dad the gorilla.
01:27Your dad's a gorilla.
01:28I said, I rest my case, Your Honor.
01:30But down there, down, I put them back together.
01:33They became friends.
01:34And I went to the funeral of Joe Frazier with Oli.
01:38And the minister got up and spoke.
01:40And he said, down goes Frazier.
01:43Down goes Frazier.
01:45But Oli came by and beat George Foreman.
01:48Up goes Frazier.
01:49And that was it.
01:50You know, but Joe was a good guy.
01:52We went to his funeral.
01:53We have a lot of respect.
01:54They loved each other.
01:56You can't talk about bacon and eggs.
01:59Oli and Frazier.
02:01You know, that's the way it is.
02:03Any time you hear boxing, Oli Frazier.
02:07The big thing was the ice.
02:09Without that, the fight would have been over.
02:11Oli might have got beat.
02:13But, you know, Jerry Eisenberg, the great writer,
02:17he told me, Gene, that was a streak of genius,
02:22you getting that ice.
02:24I said, no, not me.
02:25The guy who brought the ice back.
02:27That was the guy who saved the day.
02:29Not me.
02:30I could have given that money to somebody else's name on
02:32and came back.
02:33But he came back.
02:34And when he came back, I said, thank God,
02:36we're home free now.
02:38So blows the game begins.
02:41Sweat and grit where legends win.
02:44The clock is ticking, hearts ignite.
02:47Sports bites, Philippines, we rise.
02:52Through the course that fills the skies.
02:56Loud and proud we chase the prize.
03:00Sports bites, Philippines, alive.
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